


Obstinate, Obdurate, Tony Stark.

by Rabentochter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Coffee, Coffee Addict Tony Stark, Feels, Getting Back Together, Hallucinations, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Insomniac Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Pizza, Post-Break Up, Tony Stark Feels, Worried Jarvis (Iron Man movies), i think, staying awake for too long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24063742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabentochter/pseuds/Rabentochter
Summary: Tony needed coffee. Not coffee, no, that wasn't right. He needed Loki. To get Loki back he needed to build this blue box, he was sure that he'd seen on TV before that could maybe help out with his problem. But maybe it was just something he'd thought of right now. Also, why was JARVIS insisting he needed sleep, that didn't make any sense either.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark
Comments: 28
Kudos: 178





	Obstinate, Obdurate, Tony Stark.

Sleep, he needed sleep. Tony needed sleep, he was _tired_. No, he wasn’t sleepy, he was hyperactive because of the lack of sleep, that was what he was.

What was sleep anyway? It was all pointless. Neglectable. Not important.

The table felt cold under his elbows and he wanted to hit his head against it for as long as it would take Loki to come back to him.

When had he left? Two days ago? Tony wasn’t sure. It might have been four. He should probably go to sleep and dream of his trickster. He was going crazy here.

He could feel it.

He had some weird ass weak minutes or seconds, possibly both, in which he just sank forward or closed his eyes because it felt good, so weirdly good and did _something_ in the meantime with his hands and he was never quite sure what until he opened his eyes again and saw the result. It was interesting. The helmet belonged to the spine of the suit, yes. He thought he was screwing on the protective shoulder shell, not the _helmet_. He was so tired.

But he couldn’t stop working, he could not stop _not_ being awake. Because what if Loki came back and Tony was asleep? How could Tony be sure that Loki wouldn’t leave again, disappointed, and angry that Tony couldn’t even greet him?

 _That’s bullshit_ , his mind whispered and wow, now even his mind could talk. That was never a good sign, was it? Like earlier that day when they had fought _someone_ and Tony helped his teammates out, fought the villain’s attacks off while searching for a shimmer of green, a few sparkles, a horned shadow – anything, just to see and know his trickster was doing well, that Prancer was still kicking and Lokes still wanted to come home to him.

He opened his eyes.

 _“Fuck_ ,” he hissed and threw the ruler in his hand away. His head hurt. No, not his head, part of his head. Eyes? Nose? In the middle of his face anyway.

“I need more coffee.”

Because he couldn’t go to sleep, he couldn’t, he wasn’t allowed to. Because Loki would leave then and Tony had to face the certainty that Loki _had left_ and his dreams wouldn’t let him forget, no. They would make him remember and he –

He opened his eyes again.

_“FUCK!”_

He was still at the table. Good. At least that.

He was a small maniac, a new Einstein with even less sleep now. But a better hairstyle. Sure, he still couldn’t wrap his head around why people couldn’t understand E=mc^2 when his window was 3’6x3’8 inches and that would mean an acreage of 66’8” so yeah, that made sense and the screwdriver was put behind his ear, scratching him in ways Tony didn’t like. The only person that could nibble and bite on him, that was Loki.

 _Loki,_ and no one else. Not even a screwdriver. He didn’t have a blue telephone box anyway. He wanted one. Now.

_“Sir, you have been awake for approximately 90 hours.”_

“JARVIS!” Tony turned on his wheels. “I need a box, blue, big, no wait, small but on the inside big.”

“ _Sir, I am worried about your health.”_

“Psst, health.” Tony blinked. He was awake again. He walked back to the table and pulled out paper, scribbling down some more formulas he could need, no he _did_ need and then some more that looked nice. Was sleep even something you needed or was it just a thing from your fictional mind? Perhaps it was nothing more than superstition. He wanted to throw things away.

 _Coffee_.

No, he wanted no coffee, he wanted _Loki_. He wanted Loki, and perhaps the blue box would be enough to show Loki that he was more than a bothering mortal who was-

He didn’t want to think about it. He only wanted Loki back in his arms and that was all Tony needed. Then he could go back to sleep – but only then. He needed Loki to sleep, the tall Aesir mage curling up behind and around him, a long pale leg thrown over his, an arm serving as a part of his pillow and midnightly rambles about _something_ Tony wasn’t able to understand but that didn’t matter. He would stay awake and listen to Loki for as long as he talked in his sleep because that was what Loki deserved.

Someone who listened to him even when said someone didn’t understand him because he was just a weak mortal and not someone like Captain America who was better than him anyway. He was Tony Stark, a nobody, and nothing more than that. The one with the weird flashlight in his chest who was mad enough to attempt a relationship with the villain of the Avengers because he liked flirting and when someone recognised his genius, when someone tried earnestly to get into contact with him, when he got invited out to dates – cheap ones in Burger King where grease would land everywhere and then order some horrible ice-cream afterwards. Expensive dates into a winery Tony had never visited because it was boring alone but Loki had gotten them a private tour and no wine had tasted as sweet as the one Tony had drank from Loki’s lips. So he was falling or had already fallen for the guy who brought him to Alfsomething and wandered with him over the market, made him laugh and feel the best since probably ever and –

He wrote the last number down.

“I need coffee,” Tony decided and stood up again. The radio was playing ‘One More Night’ and wished them all a good start in the morning.

 _Morning?_ Already? He wasn’t – yes, he had spent another night in the workshop although he had planned to go to sleep, hadn’t he? What had he-

His eyes fell on the papers all around him. Oh, the TARDIS. Childhood dream since the day Tony had gotten introduced to Doctor Who by Jarvis – the human Jarvis, not his artificial JARVIS who was strangely silent, now that Tony thought about it.

“JARVIS, are you all right?”

 _“I am, Sir.”_ He sounded exhausted.

“JARVIS, do you need a holiday?”

Could an AI even have a holiday? Tony wasn’t sure but he could test drive FRIDAY or KAREN or one of his other AIs while JARVIS could go and relax his coding for a bit.

“Hey buddy, do you miss having company?”

_“I have you as company, do I not, Sir?”_

“Am I enough company for you though? Don’t you want a playmate? Someone who’s equal to you and matches you?”

“ _Are you speaking of a romantic match, Sir?”_ Well, _now_ JARVIS sounded concerned. And still exhausted.

“I think so, yes.”

_“Then no, Sir. I was not programmed to develop romantic feelings and frankly, I do not wish for them.”_

“Why not?” Tony removed the helmet from his suit. “It’s fun.”

_“Not for everybody.”_

Tony shrugged. “That’s all right. Not everybody wants a romantic interest, isn’t that right? Hey did you realise that the Doctor doesn’t really have –“ he stopped. “I FORGOT ABOUT THE TARDIS AGAIN!”

The helmet shattered to ground and Tony ran to computers, ordering things he needed for his TARDIS.

 _“I have to insist that you need to go to sleep, it’s been around 97 hours and you_ have _to sleep eventually.”_

“Have to, have to, have to,” Tony growled. “All I have to do is to build the TARDIS, I need it. My blue trickster-“

He jumped up again.

 _Coffee_ , how could he have forgotten? And hadn’t he ordered some pizza last night? He hoped for the Avengers they hadn’t eaten his pizza. It was _his_ and he’d write his name on everything he owned just so people would know what was his because things could get lost. Like his heart. Not, that his heart was lost it had just been brutally removed from his rib cage and had disappeared in a sparkling rain of green and gold and _ah_ , it had been beautiful. Had it not been that it was the moment Loki decided to leave, too. That had hurt.

 _TARDIS,_ he needed to build it so he could impress his Rock of Ages and then visit with him other planets and then they could go and search for a cure against mortality because this was what Loki troubled, wasn’t it? That Tony would die one day and leave him here alone. And then they weren’t even an official couple, they were hiding their love, themselves from all the others, from the whole world to be exact but that was hardly anything new, was it?

No, that _was_ something new, Tony had never hidden a lover before, had he? Howard had been fine with all his girlfriends because Tony had known better than to get himself a boyfriend. He had kissed and fucked with some guys at and from MIT but never had it been anything serious, not when this could have meant, quote Howard, “the end for Stark Industries, Tony!” Ah, it had been ‘ungrateful brat’, not ‘Tony,’ right. Sometimes Tony made Howard nicer ini his memories than he used to be.

Was he doing the same with Loki?

“TONY!”

He stopped and turned around to Natasha. “Nat, where’s my pizza?”

She stared at him – was that worry in her eyes? “JARVIS told me you’ve been awake for a long time.”

“Don’t believe him. He’s prone to lying, haven’t you noticed yet?”

“Tony, I doubt your AI would lie to us about your _health_!”

“Where. Is. My. Pizza?!” he snapped at her. He had better things to do. This was his day off, he could get drunk later, he had to do the TARDIS first. Thankfully, people delivered things quicker when you promised some extra grants. Really, life was occasionally fair.

“In the oven,” Natasha gritted out. “I want you to go to sleep, Tony!”

“Nice. As do I.” He opened the oven and pulled his pizza out. “Later.”

“Tony, we’re _worried_ about you! A broken heart doesn’t-“

He let the pizza drop.

It fell on his feet.

“ _Don’t._ ”

“Tony-“

“JARVIS, tell DUM-E to make this clean,” he ordered his AI before walking back into the elevator.

He had an apple in his hand. Natasha, probably. He couldn’t remember taking an apple, he didn’t like the red ones, he wanted _green apples_ because they looked good in the hands of Loki. The pale skin in contrast to the poisonous green, the juice slowly dribbling down his lips and Tony licking it, threading his fingers through inky black hair and a careful tongue probing against his lips, asking for entrance and –

He was getting a boner in the elevator. Not good.

In the four hours he waited for everything to be delivered he tore the table apart, made a new chair out of it and made a suit that could bath and allowed Tony to pee in it. It was green with blue accents. It looked hideous but Tony loved it. He wanted to test it out, now but he couldn’t, he had to build the TARDIS first, he had to get Loki back.

Screwdriver. Where was it? He bit into the apple and went to work, work, _work_ , TARDIS and JARVIS was bothering him too much so that he muted him and had some Norse ambience music play because it gave him motivation, it reminded him of hot chocolate in bed and a velvet-like voice telling him tales of Asgard and two brothers who brought chaos to the golden realm and didn’t stop, the dark and dangerous scent that was Loki and lips pressing against his temples when the story was over and Tony finally allowed himself to fall asleep.

His arms were hurting and his fingers as well. But he was nearly, nearly _done_ and U and DUM-E were amazing helper bots, doing so much work and chirped happily and made him shakes. They were the best. Tony would have to take them with him on his travels through space, relative dimensions and hopefully one day, _time_.

Everything hurt but it was for the best cause possible and Tony worked until the TARDIS started to whir and hummed in bass tones. It was a beautiful box, small on the outside and Tony opened the door, stepped into his small ship. It wasn’t huge inside, no. But it was bigger and that was what counted for him.

“Send a signal, JARVIS.”

Tony touched the control pad with careful fingers, stroked over it with gentle pressure. “I want L-“

A hand clasped over his mouth. Tony stopped thinking, leant back into the shape of an armour he knew nearly as good as his own, felt leather rub against his bare legs. When had he lost his pants?

“Thor contacted me,” Loki said behind him in a sharp but worried whisper. Tony shivered, leant even more into Loki’s cold armour until he stared up at Loki and his fine features. “He said the Avengers were _worried sick_ for one of their team members. That he refused to sleep for _hours_ and when I asked him what amount of hours I get told something like _four days_. Are you _mad,_ Anthony?”

Tony hummed happily, closing his eyes.

“You are,” Loki breathed, his hands slipping from Tony’s mouth. He grieved for the touch instantly. “I told you I cannot see you die and wither away and yet you-“

“Made a TARDIS,” Tony mumbled. “Can visit other planets and search for a cure against mortality then.”

“Tony,” Loki said quietly. “It’s not as easy as that.”

“But it can _beee_.” He turned around so he could bury his face in Loki’s chest. “Just wanna be with you,” he slurred. Loki still smelled like Loki. Dark and dangerous, a whisper of regret and an apology to his ears and then they were cuddling on the ground. Tony didn’t mind, not when he looked up at Loki, his arms wrapped tightly around his trickster.

“Will you stay with me and my TARDIS?” he asked.

“If you go to sleep?”

“Will you stay?”

Loki smiled at him. Tony wasn’t sure what to think of it.

“I will.”

Tony purred happily, pressed a kiss to Loki’s lips then curled against him, hiding his face in the juncture between shoulder and neck, kissing the skin there as well.

“Good night, Anthony.”

“Night, Loki.” He rubbed his nose over the skin. “Testin’ the TARDIS tomorrow?”

Loki chuckled. “When you’re awake, we can test it, yes.”

Tony breathed in, closed his eyes and let himself finally fall asleep. He had Loki now with him again. He had known building a TARDIS instead of sleeping would bring him his trickster back. Now there was only the question what else he had invented over the last few days and of course, testing the TARDIS but that was for _tomorrow_.

**Author's Note:**

> What do I even know. Today and the day before and the one before, have all been some kind of a _day_ 😆


End file.
